• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Out-of-Control HR is Destroying Britain

by Will Jones
8 March 2024 3:00 PM

An all-pervasive ‘just be kind’ mindset in every walk of life is turning the economy to mush, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph. And it’s being driven by out-of-control HR. Here’s an excerpt.

One way to respond to this [explosion in worklessness] would be to say that Britain is a sicker country than it used to be. But as one noted psychiatrist put it earlier this year, the “rate of defined disorders has not changed for 50-60 years”. What may have changed instead is our willingness to describe ourselves as being mentally unwell, and the willingness of the state to accept that claim without excessive interrogation.

Indeed, in the HR state, attempts to shift people into employment are frowned upon as unkind, even though work can be beneficial for mental health. And so the taxpayer continues to fork out for workers who don’t work, public services decline and the tax burden grows.

Once you start to see the growing power of HR culture, it’s everywhere. It’s in the way we speak to each other, with normal, everyday interactions increasingly governed by rules on what can be said, on what level of rudeness incurs civil or criminal liability.

Rather than taking offence – with the implication that we can choose how to respond, including shrugging ill-judged words off – we are harmed by insensitive language. And the HR state intervenes to protect us, levelling jail sentences at people who are rude online, or handing massive payouts to those offended by their colleagues at work.

It doesn’t matter if that offence is given with good reason. Demanding excellent performance from highly paid civil servants and employees is out. And getting rid of employees isn’t always an option either: in one notable case, a judge found in favour of an employee complaining about being let go after 808 sick days (and racking up £96,000 in sick pay).

You aren’t even really free to choose what you pay your employees. At any point, the state could decide your arrangement is insufficiently fair.

Take the de facto bankruptcy of Birmingham City Council. Poor decisions, like spending millions of pounds taxiing students to school, played a role in this affair. But perhaps the biggest blow came when a judge determined that completely different jobs, with completely different demands – and market rates – met a nebulous definition of equal worth.

It didn’t matter that men and women in the same roles were paid the same wages. The simple fact that some jobs – such as street cleaners and refuse collectors – received bonuses that others – such as cooks and care workers – did not was enough to show that the council had breached the law. The result was £1.1bn in payouts, with possibly another £760m in liabilities remaining, and a torrent of follow-on lawsuits against councils, supermarkets, and all sorts of other employers.

From an economic perspective, this is nuts. It’s closer to old Marxist theories of value than it is to anything modern economists would recognise. Different jobs earn different wages because they are different; they differ in staffing levels, capital intensity, travel time, injury risk, hours, unpleasantness, and any number of other features.

Wages reflect all of these things and more. Of course different jobs pay different wages! But in the eyes of the HR state, none of this matters. All that matters is that a judge believes they are of equal worth.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Economic crisisHRMental Health CrisisNHSUnemploymentWelfareWoke GobbledegookWorklessness

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

No Significant Warming in One of the Most Climate-Sensitive Parts of the Planet, Ice Core Data Show

Next Post

Time to Put the BBC’s Dire Football Woke-us Out of its Misery

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

24 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

They’re not skiving! They’re just staying at home to protect granny! We should be grateful!

50
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

I wonder how many of these glaikit nutters that glue themselves to roads, destroy public property or deface Starbucks/KFC/McDonald’s ( because that’ll ”free Palestine” ), and disrupt society generally with their antisocial behaviour, have jobs. Because I think not only do they have zero respect for others but they’re completely devoid of any self-respect also. Seriously, what right-minded person goes on like this? Pure vandalism. I’m sure her parents are proud!;

https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY/status/1766113531433230615

62
-2
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

As German, I have much more reason to be pissed of by English politics of that time than these nutjobs. Yet, I’d never destroy a painting of Llyod George or Winston Churchill (or even Arthur Harris, for that matter). I guess this must be because we’re all completely barbarian quasi-animals who only derive pleasure from destroying irreplacable works of art and culture and hacking of the feet and hands of children (all of these being actual tropes of British WWI wartime propaganda) …

16
-3
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  RW

Yes but do you know what Mogwai means by “glaikit” ?

4
0
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Is this a question? Not until I looked it up but it’s not really necessary for the meaning of the sentence as it just adds emphasis to object of it. Glaikit nutter could also be rendered as nutty nutter.

5
-1
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  RW

Yes it is a question. —-It is not confrontational though. I am only asking if you have heard of this since you are German and that is an old Scottish word that most English people will not be that familiar with.

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Only one solution for that oxygen thieving halfwit …

Short Drop.

22
0
AlexJ08
AlexJ08
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Mogwai

If this was at Cambridge university, then perhaps she’s a student. Very worrying indeed, that supposedly the brightest young minds in the country can behave like this: spoilt little brats, who are desecrating priceless British artefacts. I mean, does she really have any idea who Balfour is? Clearly many British professors are under pressure to fall in line with the latest leftist mind fart; under pressure from the students, in fact. In the past, this little girl would have been expelled, fined, possibly even arrested. Now the professors sit back and nod their heads “yes Balfour was a racist misogynistic islamophobe Covid-denying far right extremist, and he should be erased”

Interestingly, it was at Beijing University (the Cambridge of China) where Mao’s ‘thought’ was followed most feverishly by the students, who then turned against their professors for ‘old ideas, old habits, old customs, old culture’, vandalising artefacts, burning books and trashing people’s homes. Sound familiar?

28
-1
sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago
Reply to  AlexJ08

That is what also happened at Evergreen State College in Washington.

11
0
Monro
Monro
1 year ago

Too much employment legislation:

‘“It is a common misconception that more laws mean greater protection. Legislation has become increasingly complicated and ambiguous for employers. There comes a point when the added benefit is questionable and must be outweighed by the burden which it places on business. This is especially the case for small and medium sized employers who may not have a specialist, in-house HR function.”

“In the past five years (2005-10) there has been a continuous flow of new employment laws passed ranging from the new Agency Workers Regulations, the Age Discrimination Regulations to European case law on rights to accrue holidays even while on long term sick leave. New employment legislation is estimated to have added £70 billion to costs for businesses over the last decade.’

So, Blair’s Britain. A massive public sector: ‘At its most recent high-point in 2010, the public sector employed about 6.1 million workers, or 21% of all UK workers. This followed an increase of about 700,000 in the absolute size of the public workforce since 1998–99.’

But:

‘The government has confirmed at least 10 new (HR) laws for 2024’

So Cameron, May, Bunter, Sunak’s Britain as well; still a massive public sector after fourteen entirely pointless and incompetent years:

‘There were an estimated 5.90 million employees in the public sector in September 2023, which is 35,000 (0.6%) more than in June 2023 and 135,000 (2.3%) more than in September 2022.’

We know what to do:

‘It will be necessary to curtail the major areas of government spending: welfare, health and education. Indeed, emergency cuts, or at least freezes, in welfare benefits and public sector pay may be in order – the kind of measures seen recently in struggling central European countries. Indeed, we should start this year – welfare benefits, pensions and public sector pay should not rise by more than private sector pay rises. If public sector pay cannot be reined in this year it will never be reined in. If welfare benefits are not pegged to wage increases then employment incentives will be diminished.

However, the crisis also presents opportunities for Cameron to launch positive longer-term reforms that reduce the scope of government. He could start by tackling public sector pensions (a liability of over £1 trillion), move on to welfare reform and then health and education, promoting competition and efficiency through individual savings accounts and voucher-type schemes while getting rid of the costly bureaucrats.

How could this be done in practice? A voucher scheme could involve a voucher of a fixed money value being given for the first five years of the scheme. Its value in real terms – and certainly relative to national income – would then fall. This could be politically acceptable as it would happen at the same time as huge efficiency savings were achieved.

And let’s not forget regulation. Removing red tape – for example, the new gender pay audits – would reduce the government payroll while lowering costs for businesses.’

IEA 2010

But no-one has the backbone to do it…..so they will be removed…..and so will the next ones and so on until someone gets the message…….

‘

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
21
-1
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

All Bureaucracies are the same. They expand out of control and grab more and more power and control. The virus of Politically Correct, wokery and human rights nonsense has spread all across the western world faster than a speeding bullet.

36
0
Hester
Hester
1 year ago

I worked as a senior exec at a ftse 100 company, the ceo appointed a new female HR Director. who still works at a senior level in Industry, she never remained in any post for more than 2 years. On arrival what was a small efficient department bloated to a large over reaching one, a more manipulative and machiavellian individual I have never before or since come across. She caused division between the execs through a whisper campaign, she would monitor and spy on staff members through their social media accounts. she introduced the concept of pay increases linked to ” the correct behaviors and values”, she denied job opportunities to be offered to non university educated staff.
She was a true horror of a woke virtue signaller, who justified her spying and displacement of members of the workforce for the good of the company.
The ceo was weak, she used knowledge of his extra marital affairs to keep her position. True to form when a new ceo joined she left. I regularly see her writing s in HR journals on the importance of equity and kindness. A more unkind person I have yet to meet, she is also a mentor for her discipline which helps explain the malignant growth and influence of a role that actually is of no financial or creative value to a business.

98
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Hester

I know this isn’t necessarily gender-specific, although I’ve always got on better with male colleagues than female ( probably because they, like me, weren’t bitchy and didn’t flirt with the male consultants on ward rounds ), but your post reminded me for some reason of this. So in the spirit of ‘International Womens’ Day’ I must share this skit that’s floating around, plus I always was a Harry Enfield fan back in the day, so any excuse;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w&ab_channel=BBCStudios

23
0
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Thankfully, this has meanwhile been fixed: I know a fair lot of men who are extremely fond of kittens and entirely unaware of what gold standard means.

Last edited 1 year ago by RW
8
0
AEC
AEC
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

genius. Thanks for posting

0
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Hester

Why do you think your CEO chose her?

9
0
Hester
Hester
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Christ only knows

4
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Hester

I mean do you think the CEO just wandered into it without really paying attention to the possible consequences, or was he on board with her agenda, largely? I work in a small firm which doesn’t really do box ticking crap, but a lot of our clients, especially the US-based ones, seem to really push it and they are in the B2B space so no need to appeal to the general public.

3
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

Rights come from our humanity. Not from governments. Because if you get your rights from bureaucrats, politicians and governments then those same people can take those rights away again.

33
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Indeed- Clarence Thomas said something similar in his gay marriage dissent.

9
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

Speaking of International Women’s Day, I had an e-mail from my old school today (an all boy’s grammar school since the sixteenth century) inviting me to help them celebrate International Women’s Day and champion the importance of gender equality.

It’s good to know the lads are being fired up to begin the much needed fight for equal rights and equal pay for women.Who knows, today’s might even win women the vote one day.

14
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

Evil globalists are destroying western civilisation. HR are just useful idiots.

35
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

There is arather angry and curt tone to this writing. Of course there is plenty to be said about these miserable tendencies but this seems to be a list of bitter complaints masquerading as a cogent proposition. Stoicism is an interesting philosophy to reflect upon. In Greece it was one of the three responses to the decline of empire, along with Epicureanism and Pyrrhonic sceptism. There were schools devoted to the science of the will in the early twentieth century but they were killed of by the world wars. Christian teaching provided a profound exposition of how stoicism and tenderness represent the fullness of being. Surely an attempt to understand such tendencies begins with an attempt to unravel their antecedents first. For some people it takes a lot for them to keep their physical and mental health in good condition in the times that we are living in.

5
-6
Castorp
Castorp
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

Nuanced erudition, how passe 🙂
The author does have a point, but is also clearly conflating matters to attract traffic.
Now now, what could have caused that ca. 40% uptick starting in 2020 in the trend of the (sadly) long-term sick?

1
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Episode 36 of the Sceptic: Karl Williams on Starmer’s Phoney Immigration Crackdown, Dan Hitchens on the Assisted Suicide Bill and Tom Jones on Reform’s Local Council Challenge

by Richard Eldred
16 May 2025
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

15 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

16 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

16 May 2025
by Will Jones

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

29

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

26

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

19

News Round-Up

18

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

27

Trump’s Lesson in Remedial Education

16 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

15 May 2025
by Dr Nicholas Tate

‘Why Can’t We Talk About This?’

15 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

POSTS BY DATE

March 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Feb   Apr »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences